In my career I have used Salesforce, Act, Commence and Maximizer for extended periods of time. When working with teams Salesforce has been my favorite as it allows for easy customization and deployment. As System Administrator for a Salesforce installation I created twelve Dashboards, 385 custom reports, the development of contract data in Salesforce and a general reconciliation of customer data with multiple silos of information. It was easy. I also took advantage of Salesforce's AppExchange with thousands of user-contributed add-on modules. And some were free. This said, Salesforce is expensive starting at $25 monthly, per user.

Lately, my needs have been more personal and modest. I've tested both Insightly and Zoho. Both have been noteworthy for being free for up to 3 users. Zoho, however has uped the antee and is now free for up to 10 users. If you outgrow the free accounts; Insigntly is $7 monthly, per user and Zoho is $12 monthly, per user. I consider both options affordable.

Insigntly is a little bit more like home for a Salesforce user. I love custom fields. Custom fields are extra data fields you can add to all contact, organization, opportunity and project records to capture additional information when creating and saving those records. You can add additional fields per record in either text format, date format, or chosen from a list of options you specify. This is unusual flexibility in a "free" product. But I'd opt for Insightly's paid account. With it you get tight integration with Google Apps through their popular Insightly gadget, seamless sync with Google Calendar and Google Contacts, and easy access to Google Drive. You also get QuickBooks Online integration. Users can view any customer payment status and history within Insightly. Dual data entry is eliminated. Also, you have a single view operational and financial view of your customers and their account status, invoices and payments. This is awesome stuff.

I also like Zoho. Zoho CRM frees you "to do what you do best: selling. Automate tasks, improve workflow and focus on creating and capturing opportunities." It too is integrated with Google Apps and "lets you work effortlessly and collaborate seamlessly." More than 50,000 customers trust Zoho CRM and that alone will attract some users. Also, if you need a solution available in multiple languages Zoho would be the choice.

Project Management capabilities illustrate a key difference between the Insightly and Zoho products. Insightly includes project management in their CRM application. With Zoho project management requires another module. I prefer all-in-one solutions to integration. This is true even if I have to give up some features. And there is no doubt about it that Insightly project management is "lite." It meets my needs, however, so I'm ok with it.

I wouldn't count Act out if you are seeking your personal favorite CRM. For over 25 years is has been a best-selling Contact & Customer Manager. Affordable and easy-to-use I liked Act! It is a simple solution beginning at an affordable $10 per month, per user that you might like too. A recent announcement that Swiftpage "Doubles Down on Act!, Signs Agreement to Sell Saleslogix" is good news for potential customers. Swiftpage positions the sale as allowing them to "fully focus on our core ‘DNA’ of helping micro and small businesses grow." If done right, Act could again become a player.

Finally, I would like to share with you a universal truth. The best CRM product in the world is the one you already know. Change is difficult.
- The Pragmatic Web Designer

My favorite Insightly feature is its social media integration. I simply put in a contact’s email address and it finds virtually every social media profile related to the email address. I see Twitter content and my contact’s public LinkedIn profile. Also, I can explore my contact’s public profile on Facebook, Google+, FourSquare, etc. Awesome! Try it for yourself. - PWD

Well, I would say I prefer Salesforce, and the reason why I choose is because of the better functionality, customer support and the best thing I like about Salesforce is its chatter application, which allows the social networking, the reporting style that it follows is something that you just can't shook your head from. Rest most of the things are already covered by most of the individuals commenting over here !

Hey Craig. Great question, I hear this question quite a bit. CRM tools are amazing and can be a bit overwhelming to begin.

What are you looking to benefit as a result of investing in a CRM tool?

Working in the advertising field for over a decade, there were fancy CRM tools that I had available but found (in my lack of technical experience) it was difficult to find the information that you specifically want to know. I started a simple dashboard (that began as an excel sheet) that helped me keep track of the metrics that matter. I have one available for download for free on my site (that also includes a ~7 min video on how to use it.)http://www.markjamnik.com/discover-dashboard/

It's best to start with a simple excel document to start keeping track of things. Once you have the system down, you can add the information into any CRM tool.

I took my dashboard and began using Infusionsoft personally (2 years ago.) Infusionsoft is very powerful, yet it takes some time to implement the many items.

It's best to have a map of what you are looking for the tool to use. Whatever CRM tool you go with, really get clear and map out the process before jumping in. (I learned that personally as well.)

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